A Coachman – Free – Directed by Kang Dae-jin, A Coachman became the first Korean film to win awards internationally. It won honors at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival in 1961. It was put online with Google’s help.

A Farewell to Arms – Free – Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes star in a film based on famous novel by Ernest Hemingway. (1932)

A Matter of Life and Death – Free – Romantic fantasy film created by the British writing-directing-producing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and set in England during the Second World War. It stars David Niven, Roger Livesey, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring and Raymond Massey. (1946)

A Song of Love – Free – The only film by playwright Jean Genet. The erotic film was censored. (1950)

A Star is Born – Free – Janet Gaynor portrays Esther Blodgett, a starry-eyed small town girl with a dream of making it big in Hollywood. (1937)

As You Like It – Free – It’s Laurence Olivier’s earliest Shakespeare performance on film. It’s also the first feature-length British sound Shakespeare film. (1936)

Becky Sharp – Free – The first feature film to use three-strip Technicolor film, or, put differently, the first real color film. (1935).

Bottle Rocket – Free – Wes Anderson’s first short film, which became the basis for his first feature film by the same name. (1992)

Breaking the Code – Free – A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the digital computer and one of the key figures in the breaking of the Enigma code. Stars Derek Jacobi. (1996)

Cannibal! The Musical – Free – Black comedy by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the makers of South Park. Their very first feature film. (Available on Hulu to US audience only.) (1993)

Captain Kidd –Free– Charles Laughton and John Carradine star in film with drama on the high seas. (1945)

Caravaggio – Free – Directed by Derek Jarman, the film is a fictionalised re-telling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Crash: The Short Film – Free – Otherwise known as The Atrocity Exhibition, this pre-Cronenberg short film was directed by Harley Cokeliss and stars J.G. Ballard himself. (1971)

Cyrano De Bergerac – Free – Michael Gordon’s tale based on the classic French tale. (1950)

Darwin – Free – 53-minute exploration of the life and work of Charles Darwin by Peter Greenaway. (1993)

Diary – Free – Short film by Tim Hetherington (director of Restrepo) that reflects on his ten years of war reporting. (2010)

Dinner for One – Free – A short comedy film that has become part of a New Year’s Eve tradition in Germany and many other European countries. Once held the Guinness World Record for Most Frequently Repeated TV Program. (1963)

Doodlebug – Free – One of Christopher Nolan’s early short films. Made in 1997, released in 2003.

End of the World – Free – After witnessing a man’s death in a bizarre accident, Father Pergado goes on a spiritual retreat, where he encounters his alien double bent on world conquest. Sci-fi film stars Christopher Lee. (1977)

Enthusiasm – Free – Dziga Vertov’s masterpiece of early sound film, Enthusiasm deals with the Five Year Plan of the late 1920s. His goal was “to grasp the feverish reality of life in the Don Basin, to convey as true to life as possible its atmosphere of the clash of hammers, of train whistles, of the songs of workers at rest.” In Russian. (1931)

Erotikon – Free – Directed by Czech filmmaker Gustav Machatý and starring Hedy Lamarr, the film was controversial in its time because it had nude scenes. It was the first non-pornographic movie to portray sexual intercourse and the female orgasm. (1929)

Evidence – Free – From the maker of Koyaanisqatsi, a short film about kids watching cartoons (1995).

Fear and Desire – Free – An uncut print of Stanley Kubrick’s “lost” early film. Kubrick didn’t like how his first film came out, so removed it from circulation. (1953)

Flamenco at 5:15 – Free – Oscar-winning short film about a flamenco dance class given to senior students. Made available by the National Film Board of Canada. (1983)

Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life – Free – Directed by Peter Capaldi, the Oscar-winning short film shows Kafka, on Christmas Eve, struggling to come up with the opening line for his most famous work, The Metamorphosis. (1993)

Free Zone – Free – The second film in Amos Gitai’s Border Trilogy,Free Zone stars Natalie Portman and features a strong-willed Israeli woman who travels to the Jordan-Iraq-Saudi border to collect money owed to her husband. Limited to US viewers. (2005)

Freiheit – Free – The third short film George Lucas made while a film-school student at USC and the first with a narrative. (1966)

From the Drain – Free – David Cronenberg‘s short film made while attending the University of Toronto. (1967)

Geometria – Free – A ghoulish short film by Guillermo del Toro. One of his earliest films that you can watch online. (1987)

Great Expectations – Free -The classic story of Pip the British orphan. Based on the great Charles Dickens novel available in our collection of Free eBooks. (1946)

Hamlet – Free – David Tennant and Sir Patrick Stewart appear in modern adaptation of Royal Shakespeare Company’s stage production of Hamlet. (2009)

Hardware Wars – Free – It’s the mother of all Star Wars fan films, and also one of the most popular short films ever made. (1978)

Häxan: The Witches or Witchcraft Through The Ages – Free – Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 silent film Häxangetsa narration by William S. Burroughs. (1968)

Hell’s Angels – Free – American war film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow, about combat pilots of World War I. Stanley Kubrick listed it as one of his 10 favorite films on his only top 10 list. (1930)

Hell’s House – Free – With Bette Davis and Pat O’Brien. The film is set during the final days of prohibition. (1932)

Herbert White – Free – James Franco’s short film made during film school. Stars Michael Shannon. Based on a poem by Frank Bidart. (2010)

La Ciociara (Two Women) – Free – The film won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Sophia Loren). It was the first time an actress won an acting award for a non-English speaking role. (1960)

La Femme 100 Tetes – Free – An adaptation of Max Ernst’s collage book “La femme 100 têtes,” originally published in 1929. Consider the film a collage in motion. (1967)

L’Age d’or – Free – French surrealist comedy directed by Luis Buñuel about the insanities of modern life, the hypocrisy of the sexual mores of bourgeois society and the value system of the Roman Catholic Church. Salvador Dalí co-wrote the screenplay. (1930)

Menthe – Free – The second film by Lars von Trier is based on the sadomasochistic novel by Dominique Aury, Story of O, and tells the story of a voluntary female subjugation. (1979)

Mike Leigh’s Five Minute Films – Free – The BBC commissioned him to make a series of five-minute movies in 1975. They eventually aired in 1982.

Mr. Arkadin – Free – Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) tells the story of an elusive billionaire who hires an American smuggler to investigate his past. It was filmed in several Spanish locations, including Segovia, Valladolid and Madrid. This film is available on Hulu and limited to US audiences. (1955)

My Best Friend’s Birthday – Free – First (incomplete) film directed by Quentin Tarantino. Some good rockabilly fun. (1987)

Mulberry – Free – S. Korean drama film directed by Lee Doo-yong. The film became “known for its erotic subject matter, made possible by the government’s gradual relaxation of censorship and control over the film industry during the 1980s.” (1986)

Murder in Harlem – Free – Film by Oscar Micheaux, the first African-American to produce a feature-length film (1920) and sound movie (1931). His films provide a window into American views on race. (1935)

No Exit/Huis Close – Free – Harold Pinter interprets the lead role of Garcia in Sartre’s famous claustrophobic play of self-definition and identity. (1965)

Penny Serenade – Free – With Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. “Depicts the story of a couple who must overcome adversity to keep their marriage and raise a child. Grant was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.” (1941)

Plaisir d’amour en Iran – Free – A short, six minute film by Agnès Varda, about a love story between a handsome Iranian (Ali Raffi) and a visiting French woman (Valérie Mairesse). The film was shot in Iran. (1976)

Plan 9 from Outer Space – Free – An Ed Wood “classic.” Considered one of the worst films ever made and yet the ultimate cult flick. (1959)

Pygmalion – Free – Classic is based on George Bernard Shaw’s play. Won Oscar for best screenplay. (1938)

¡Que viva México! – Free – A film project begun in 1930 by Russian avant-garde filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein portraying Mexican culture and politics from pre-Conquest civilization to the Mexican revolution. The troubled film was eventually abandoned.

Solaris – Part 1 – Part 2 – Andrei Tarkovsky’s meditative psychodrama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the planet Solaris. Film is made available by Mosfilm. (1972)

Sopyonje –Free – The film directed by Kwon-taek Im surprised S. Korea by both rekindling interest in the traditional music of pansori and by breaking box-office records despite playing on only three screens. You can find more Korean feature films at Korean Film Archive. (1993)

The Blood of a Poet – Free – Avant-garde film directed by Jean Cocteau. The first part of the Orphic Trilogy. (1930)

The Blue Angel – Free – The Weimar classic that made Marlene Dietrich an international star. (1930)

The Contender – Free – Stars Buster Crabbe (best known for his role as Tarzan) in well known boxing film. (1944)

The Cut Ups – Free – Directed by Anthony Balch, this avant-garde film brings William S. Burroughs’ cut up technique to film. (1966)

The Day the Pig Fell Into a Well – Free – The very first picture from Hong Sangsoo, a S. Korean director acclaimed by critics worldwide as a comedic formal experimenter, in essence Korea’s Woody Allen. (1996)

The Dentist – Free – W.C. Fields in his second talking comedy short. One of four short films Fields made with the “king of comedy,” Mack Sennett. (1932)

The Dove – Free – A parody of some of Ingmar Bergman’s best known films, including Wild Strawberries (Smultronstaellet) and The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet). Features first film appearance by Madeline Kahn. Nominated for Academy Award. (1968)

The Fall of the House of Usher – Free – Poe’s classic tale turned into an avant garde film. It was scripted by e.e. cummings. (1928)

The Fast And The Furious – Free – A 1950s B-action film written by Roger Corman. (1955)

The Flying Deuces – Free – This was the first comedy that Laurel and Hardy starred in without producer Hal Roach, although they had previously been “guest stars” in four MGM movies. (1939)

The Last Farm – Free – Short Icelandic film nominated for Oscar in 2006.

The Last Man on Earth – Free – Post apocalyptic horror film starring Vincent Price and based on Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend. (1964)

The Last Time I Saw Paris – Free – Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson star in romantic drama based on F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘s story “Babylon Revisited.” YouTube version here. (1953)

The Little Shop of Horrors – Free – Directed by Roger Corman with Jack Nicholson. It’s is a farce about an inadequate florist’s assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. (1960)

The Mirror – Free – Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Loosely autobiographical, the film features Tarkovsky’s wife Larisa Tarkovskaya. Film is made available by Mosfilm. (1975)

The Night of Counting the Years – Free – Directed by Shadi Abdel Salam, this film is considered one of the finest Egyptian films ever made. (1969)

The Orchid Gardener – Free – A young, mentally ill man, a visual artist in crisis Victor Marse (Lars von Trier) meets two nurses (Eliza and her girlfriend) during his stay in a sanatorium. Bizarre things happen next in an experimental film with a mysterious and symbolic plot . (1977)

The Painted Desert –Free – Notable for being Clark Gable’s first appearance in a talkie film. (1931)

The Parrot Sings with Her Whole Body – Free – Directed by Jung Jin-woo, this S. Korean film is meant for mature audiences. (1981)

The Phantom Fiend – Free – The first sound remake of the 1927 Alfred Hitchcock classic, The Lodger. Stars Ivor Novello and directed by Maurice Elvey. Also find on Archive.org.

The Rage in Placid Lake – Free – Australian playwright Tony McNamara makes his directorial debut with the offbeat comedy The Rage in Placid Lake, adapted from his own play The Cafe Latte Kid. US viewers. (2003)

The Road to Race Track – Free – A South Korean film directed by Jang Sun-Woo based on the controversial novel by Hailji. (1991)

The Short Films of Louis CK – Free – A collection of nine short films created by the comedian between 1993 and 1999.

The Skin Game – Free – A 1931 Hitchcock film based on a play by John Galsworthy recounts the tragic tale of a family feud. (1931)

The Snows of Kilimanjaro – Free – Based on Hemingway’s classic novel set in Africa. Stars Gregory Peck. (1952)

The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It –Free – John Cleese stars in a film where he plays Arthur Sherlock Holmes, the bumbling grandson of the famous detective. (1977)

The Stranger – Free – Directed by Orson Welles and starring Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young. This was Orson Welles’ only major box office success. Alternative version on Archive.org. (1946)

The Street Fighter – Free – One of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite karate films, and 13# on his list of 20 great Grindhouse films. Starring Sonny Chiba, the film was the first to get an X rating for violence. (1974)

The Taming of the Shrew – Free – The first sound adaptation of a Shakespeare film ever. Stars Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks. (1929)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse – Free Part 1 – Free Part 2 – Directed by Fritz Lang, this was the sequel to Lang’s nearly four-hour silent film Dr. Mabuse shot in 1922. (1933)

The Wild Ride – Free – A cult classic that features Jack Nicholson playing a rebellious punk in one of his first roles. (1960)

The World of Stainboy – Free – A series of flash animation shorts created by Tim Burton. The Stainboy character first appeared in two short poems in the book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, also created and illustrated by Tim Burton. (2000)

The Young Lovers – Free – Directed by Ida Lupino, this 1950 film tells the tale of a newly engaged woman who contracts polio. Film was also titled Never Fear. Alternate version here.

Things to Come – Free – A British sci-fi film produced by Alexander Korda and directed by William Cameron Menzies. The screenplay was written by H. G. Wells. (1934)

Titanic – Free – Before James Cameron came along, the Nazis made a big budget, feature propaganda film about The Titanic. The director was apparently murdered during its production and it was never shown in Germany. (1943)

Tuileries – Free – A short twisted film by Joel and Ethan Coen. Stars Steve Buscemi and takes place in Paris. (2006)

Virus – Free – Post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie directed by Kinji Fukasaku and based on a novel written by Sakyo Komatsu. (1980)

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women – Free – An early film by “New Hollywood” director Peter Bogdanovich (1968).

Waiting for Godot – Free – Performances of Waiting for Godot directed by none other than Samuel Beckett himself. (1985)

War & Peace – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk turns Tolstoy’s great novel into what Roger Ebert calls “the definitive epic of all time.” Won Academy Award – Best Foreign Language Film in 1969. It’s made available online by Mosfilm. (1965-1967)

Why Try to Escape from Which You Know You Can’t Escape from? Because You Are a Coward – Free – An early film by Lars von Trier. (1970)

Big Bluff – Free – Directed by W. Lee Wilder. When a scheming fortune hunter finds his rich wife is not going to die as expected, he and his lover make other plans to get her millions. (1955)

Blood on the Sun – Free – A film starring James Cagney and Sylvia Sidney is based on a fictional history behind the Tanaka Memorial document. It won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for a Black & White in 1945. In 1973, the film entered the public domain. (1945)

Carnival of Souls – Free – A low budget B film that became a cult classic. (1962)

Dementia – Free – Also called Daughter of Horror, this film by John Parker incorporated elements of horror film, film noir and expressionist film. About the film, Cahiers du cinema wrote “To what degree this film is a work of art, we are not certain but, in any case, it is strong stuff.” (1955)

Dementia 13– Free – A horror film that was one of Francis Ford Coppola’s early mainstream efforts. HD widescreen version here. (1963)

Downhill – Free – In this silent Hitchcock film, a public schoolboy “takes the blame for a friend’s theft and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures.” Also released under the title, When Boys Leave Home. (1927)

Dick Tracy – Free – A 15 episode film series that brought Dick Tracy to the silver screen. (1937)

Port of New York – Free – Two narcotics agents go after a gang of murderous drug dealers who use ships docking at the New York harbor to smuggle in their contraband. First film in which Yul Brynner appeared. (1949)

Guest in the House – Free – Directed by John Brahm, the noir film stars Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Aline MacMahon. (1946)

He Walked by Night – Free – Film-noir drama, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal. This move became the basis for “Dragnet,” and stars Jack Webb. Archive.org version here. (1948)

Impact – Free – Arthur Lubin’s well reviewed noir flic. Considered a little known classic you need to watch. (1940)

Inner Sanctum – Free – A gripping noir film about “a murderer who is on the lam and hiding out in a small town. Unbeknownst to him, he is not only hiding in the same boarding house as the only witness to his crime, he is sharing the same room.” (1948)

Invisible Ghost – Free – Bela Lugosi stars in film where a town’s leading citizen becomes a homocidal maniac after his wife deserts him. Alternate version here. (1941)

Jamaica Inn – Free – A young woman discovers that she’s living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit. Stars Maureen O’Hara, Robert Newton and Charles Laughton. (1939)

Shed No Tears – Free – Until recently, this film starring Wallace Ford and June Vincent was nearly impossible to find. Now it’s online thanks to Archive.org. (1948)

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon – Free – Sherlock Holmes rescues an inventor of an new bomb site before the Nazis can get him. (1943)

Shock – Free –This film noir tells the story of psychiatrist Dr. Cross (Vincent Price), who is treating Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw), a young woman who is in a catatonic state. The coma was brought on when she heard loud arguing, went to her window, and saw a man strike his wife with a candlestick and kill her. Alternate version found here. (1946)

Silent Night, Bloody Night – Free – An under-rated horror/slasher/mystery film — starring Patrick O’Neal, Mary Woronov, and John Carradine — that has fallen into the public domain. (1974)

Suddenly – Free – Noir film with Frank Sinatra and James Gleason. (1954)

Swamp Women – Free – One of Roger Corman’s first films. A crime/horror film that follows undercover police officer Lee Hampton who joins three female convicts and escapes from prison. (1955)

The 39 Steps – Free – One of Alfred Hitchcock’s first hits. British thriller is based on novel with same name by John Buchan. (1935)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Free – The film is adapted from the 1899 play “Sherlock Holmes” by William Gillette, and stars Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Ida Lupino, George Zucco and Alan Marshal. (1939)

The Amazing Mr. X – Free – Noir film directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton. The film tells the story of a phony spiritualist racket. (1948).

The Big Combo – Free – Directed by Joseph Lewis, this film is today considered a noir classic. Critics like to focus on the cinematography of John Alton, a noir icon. (1955)

The Capture – Free – Lew Ayres is an oil man who guns down a thief who may have been innocent. Alternate film here. (1950)

The Chase – Free – An American noir film directed by Arthur Ripley, based on the Cornell Woolrich novel The Black Path of Fear.

The File on Thelma Jordan – Free – This noir directed by Robert Siodmak features Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey. At the time Variety said, “Thelma Jordon unfolds as an interesting, femme-slanted melodrama, told with a lot of restrained excitement.” (1950)

The Green Glove – Free – A World War II veteran in France, played by Glen Ford, gets mixed up in murder while investigating a stolen treasure. Directed by Rudolph Maté. Alternate version here. (1952)

The Hoodlum – Free – Lawrence Tierney (“Reservoir Dogs”) plays an unreformed, hardened criminal who has just been released from prison. While working at his brother’s gas station, he becomes very interested in the armored car that makes regular stops at the bank across the street. (1951)

The Hitch-Hiker – Free – The first noir film made by a female director, Ida Lupino. (1953)

The House on Haunted Hill – Free – Vincent Price gives a stellar performance as the suavely malevolent host of a “haunted house party.” (1959)

The Intruder – Free – Directed by Roger Corman, the film is based on a novel by Charles Beaumont and stars William Shatner. (1962)

The Kennel Murder Case – Free – Notes Roger Ebert, “Film historians such as William K. Everson, who pronounced The Kennel Murder Case a “masterpiece” (in the August 1984 issue of Films in Review), consider it one of the greatest screen adaptations of a Golden Age mystery novel. (1933)

The Limping Man – Free – Stars Lloyd Bridges and Moira Lister. A WWII veteran goes back to England after the war only to discover that his wartime sweetheart has got mixed up with a dangerous spy ring. (1953)

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog – Free – One of Hitchcock’s silent classics. A landlady suspects her lodger is a murderer killing women around London. It’s said that this is Hitchcock’s first “Hitchcockian” film. (1927)

The Man Who Cheated Himself – Free – Some call it “an under-appreciated and little known gem.” Stars Lee J. Cobb, John Dall, Jane Wyatt, and Lisa Howard. YouTube version here. (1951)

The Man Who Knew Too Much – Free – A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet. (1934)

The Time of Your Life – Free – Adapted from the 1939 William Saroyan play of the same title (the play won the Pulitzer Prize), the film stars James Cagney and William Bendix. (1948)

The White Shadow – Free – The earliest surviving feature credited to Hitchcock. It was lost for decades but found in 2011. (1923)

They Made Me a Criminal – Free – Boxer John Garfield flees believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk. Pursued by Claude Rains, he meets up with the Dead End Kids. (1939)

Time Table – Free – After the theft of $500,000 in a carefully executed train robbery, an insurance investigator (Mark Stevens, who also doubled as director and producer) is forced to cancel a planned vacation with his wife to assist a railroad detective in identifying the culprits and recovering the money. Alternate version here. (1956)

Too Late for Tears – Free – Directed by Byron Haskin and based on a novel by Roy Huggins, Too Late for Tears is pure noir. (1949)

Woman on the Run – Free – After Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) is the sole witness to a gangland murder, he goes into hiding and is trailed by Police Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith), his wife, Eleanor (Ann Sheridan), and newspaperman, Danny Leggett (Dennis O’Keefe).

Young and Innocent – Free – Originally released in the US as The Girl Was Young, this Alfred Hitchcock film was based on Josephine Tey’s novel A Shilling for Candles. (1937)

Angel and the Badman – Free – A black and white Western starring John Wayne and Gail Russell. Considered a radical departure from the Western genre at the time. Find Internet Archive version here. (1947)

Blue Steel – Free – Western film with John Wayne playing a U.S. Marshal trying to capture the Polka Dot Bandit. Some consider it the best of the Wayne Lone Star films. Alternative version on YouTube here. (1934)

Born to the West – Free – Can Dare Rudd prove he is responsible enough to win the heart of Judy and also outwit the crooked saloon owner? Stars John Wayne, Marsha Hunt and John Mack Brown.

Gone with the West – Free – James Caan, Stefanie Powers and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1975 western.

Helltown – Free – Originally called Born to the West, this John Wayne western was based on a novel by Zane Grey. (1937)

High Lonesome – Free – A drifter (John Drew Barrymore) is suspected of murder, when the real murderers are two men who everybody thinks are dead. This movie was filmed back to back with “The Sundowners” on the same set. (1950)

Joshua – Free – A black soldier returns from fighting in the Civil War only to find out that his mother has been murdered by a gang of white thugs. He becomes a bounty hunter, determined to exact revenge. Directed by Larry G. Spangler, stars Larry Williamson. (1976)

McLintock! – Free – Comedy Western starring John Wayne & Maureen O’Hara. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. (1963)

‘Neath the Arizona Skies – Free – John Wayne plays a cowboy protecting an American Indian oil-land heiress. (1934)

One Eyed Jacks – Free – The only film directed by Marlon Brando. He also plays its lead character, Rio. (1961)

Paradise Canyon – Free – Western starring John Wayne. Features Wayne as government agent John Wyatt searching for a counterfeit ring operating on the Mexican/Arizona border. (1935)

Seven Alone – Free – A frontier family with seven children heads West on the Oregon Trail. When both of their parents die, they decide to push on alone. Stars Dewey Martin and Aldo Ray. (1974)

Texas Terror – Free – A young John Wayne in a romantic western. (1935)

The American West of John Ford – Free– A documentary encapsulating the career and Western films of director John Ford, featuring interviews with John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. (1971)

The Dawn Rider – Free – John Wayne plays John Mason, a man avenging his father’s murder. A western directed by Robert Bradbury. (1935)

The Desert Trail – Free – Early Western with John Wayne. According toWesternClippings, not Wayne’s finest hour. (1935)

The Great Train Robbery – Free – Early western film by Edwin S. Porter. A landmark in narrative filmmaking (1903)

The Lawless Frontier – Free – B Western starring John Wayne and directed by Robert Bradbury. (1934)

The Lucky Texan – Free – Jerry Mason (played by John Wayne) and Jake Benson become partners and strike it rich with a gold mine. (1934) They then find their lives complicated by bad guys and a woman. (1934)

The Man From Utah – Free – The Marshal sends John Weston (John Wayne) to a rodeo to see if he can find out who is killing the rodeo riders who are about to win prize money. (1934)

The Range Feud – Free – Clint Turner is arrested for the murder of his girlfriend Judy’s father, a rival rancher who was an enemy of his own father. Stars John Wayne and Buck Jones. (1931)

The Star Packer – Free – A gang working for “The Shadow” is terrorizing the town. John Travers (John Wayne) decides to take on the job of sheriff and do something about it. (1934)

Winds of the Wasteland – Free – The arrival of the telegraph put Pony Express riders like John Blair (John Wayne) and his pal Smoky (Lane Chandler) out of work they try to start a stagecoach route through a ghost town. A rival stagecoach company tries to stop them. (1936)

A Day’s Pleasure – Free – “Chaplin’s fourth film for First National Films. It was created at the Chaplin Studio. It was a quickly made two-reeler to help fill a gap while working on his first feature The Kid. It is about a day outing with his wife and the kids and things don’t go smoothly.” (1919)

A Dog’s Life – Free – This endearing short Charlie Chaplin film tells the story of underdogs, human and canine, succeeding despite the odds. (1918)

A Fair Exchange – Free – Originally released as Getting Acquainted, the film’s plot has been summarized as follows: “Charlie and his wife are walking in the park when they encounter Ambrose and his wife. The partners become fond of their counterparts and begin chasing each other around. A policeman looking for a professional Don Juan becomes involved, as does a Turk.” (1914)

A Film Johnnie – Free – Charlie goes to the movie and falls in love with a girl on the screen. (1914)

A Man with a Camera – Free – Dziga Vertov’s experimental film about life as it is lived. A Sight and Sound magazine poll named it the 8th best movie ever made. (1929)

A Night in the Show – Free – Charlie Chaplin played two roles: one as Mr. Pest and one as Mr. Rowdy. The film was created from Chaplin’s stage work from a play called Mumming Birds. (1915)

A Page of Madness(Kuretta Ippei) – Free – This film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa and written by Nobel Prize winter Yasunari Kawabata is one of the great landmarks of Japanese silent cinema. (1926)

A Sixth Part Of The World – Free – Using a travelogue format, Dziga Vertov’s film depicts the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of the USSR. (1926)

A Woman – Free – This Chaplin film starts with Charlie meeting Edna (Edna Purviance) and her parents in a park; the mother is played by Marta Golden and the father by Charles Insley. (1915)

Aelita – Free – A silent film directed by Soviet filmmaker Yakov Protazanov. One of the earliest full-length films about space travel, the most notable part of the film remains its remarkable constructivist Martian sets and costumes designed by Aleksandra Ekster. (1924)

After the Ball – Free – One of the first “adult” films in cinema history. By the pioneering director Georges Méliès.

Alice in Wonderland – Free – The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll’s tale. Based on Sir John Tenniel’s original illustrations. (1903)

Charlie’s Recreation – Free – Out of costume, Charlie is a clean-shaven dandy who, somewhat drunk, visits a dance hall. There the wardrobe girl has three rival admirers: the band leader, one of the musicians, and now Charlie. (1914)

Cinderella – Free – This film by George Méliès is the oldest known film adaptation of the 1697 fairy tale. It was also apparently the first movie to use a “dissolve transition” between scenes. (1899)

Das Wandernde Bild – Free – A silent, black and white film directed by Fritz Lang released in 1920.

Die Nibelungen – Free – A series of two silent fantasy films created by Fritz Lang in 1924. Runs 5 hours.

Downhill – Free – In this silent Hitchcock film, a public schoolboy takes the blame for a friend’s theft and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures. Also released under the title, When Boys Leave Home. (1927)

Faust – Free– German expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau directs film version of Goethe’s classic tale. This was Murnau’s last German movie. (1926)

Frankenstein – Free– The first time Mary Shelley’s literary was brought to the big screen. (1910)

Ghosts Before Breakfast(Vormittagsspuk) – Free – Silent avant-garde film by Hans Richter. The nazis destroyed the sound version of the film, deeming it “degenerate art.” (1928)

Greed – Free – Erich von Stroheim’s silent drama originally ran 10 hours, but was eventually hacked down to two. It follows a dentist whose wife wins a lottery ticket, only to become obsessed with money. (1924)

October: Ten Days That Shook the World – Free – Originally called Oktyabr, Sergei Eisenstein’s film documents the Russian Revolution of 1917. A masterpiece by a pioneering filmmaker. (1928)

Old and New – Free – Also called The General Line, Sergei Eisenstein’s film has been called a “bucolic epic about the Soviet struggle to collectivize agricultural production.” Find alternate version at the Internet Archive here. (1929)

One A.M. – Free – The first silent film Charlie Chaplin starred in alone. (1916)

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon – Free – Sherlock Holmes rescues an inventor of an new bomb site before the Nazis can get him. (1943)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans – Free – Made by the German expressionist director F.W. Murnau. Voted in 2012, the 5th greatest film of all time. (1927)

The Adventurer – Free – Charlie Chaplin plays an escaped convict who falls into favor with a wealthy family after he saves a young lady. (1917)

The Birth of a Nation – Free – Directed by DW Griffith. A landmark work in film history (1915) with racist undertones. (1915)

The Bond – Free – A propaganda film created and funded by Charlie Chaplin for theatrical release to help sell U.S. Liberty Bonds during World War I. (1918)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Free – This silent film directed by Robert Wiene is considered one of the most influential German Expressionist films and perhaps one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Watch the restored version. (1920)

The Count – Free – The Count was Charlie Chaplin’s 5th film for Mutual Films. Co-starring Eric Campbell and Edna Purviance, it is a story about Charlie and his boss finding an invitation to a party from a real Count. (1916)

The Cure – Free – Chaplin plays a drunk who checks into a health spa to dry out and comedy ensues. (1917)

The Devilish Tenant – Free – In this Georges Méliès, a new tenant moves in and fills the room with furniture taken from his suitcase. (1909)

The Eleventh Year – Free – Dziga Vertov’s film celebrates “the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution” which, according to the Harvard Film Archive, presents that decade of socialism “in the eyes of a left-wing artist of the twenties” as “a radical social experiment [ … ] required to be presented in a radically experimental way.” (1928)

The Farmer’s Wife – Free – Early Hitchcock silent film based on a play by British novelist Eden Phillpotts. (1928)

The Floorwalker – Free – Filmed for the Mutual Film Corporation, the film featured the first “running staircase” in cinema history. (1916)

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Free – Hugely popular silent film that made Rudolph Valentino a star. (1921)

The General – Free – Orson Welles said that Buster Keaton’s The General is “the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made. Alternate version here (1926)

The Gold Rush – Free – Charlie Chaplin wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Gold Rush. Chaplin repeatedly said that this is the film he most wanted to be remembered for. (1925)

The Golem: How He Came Into the World – Free – A follow-up to Paul Wegener’s earlier film, “The Golem,” about a monstrous creature brought to life by a learned rabbi to protect the Jews from persecution in medieval Prague. Based on the classic folk tale, and co-directed by Carl Boese. (1920)

The Golem: How He Came Into the World – Free – The same film as the one listed immediately above, but this one has a score created by Pixies frontman Black Francis. (2008)

The Good for Nothing – Free – Made at the Keystone Studios, the film involves Chaplin taking care of a man in a wheelchair. (1914)

The Great Train Robbery – Free – Early western film by Edwin S. Porter. A landmark in narrative filmmaking. (1903)

The Hearts of Age – Free – The first film/short film shot by Orson Welles. It’s a play on Jean Cocteau’s movie, The Blood of a Poet. (1934)

The Immigrant – Free – Charlie Chaplin plays an immigrant coming to the United States who gets accused of theft along the way. (1917)

The Impossible Voyage – Free -Directed by Georges Méliès, this 1904 film, based on a Jules Verne’s play, is a satire of scientific exploration in which a group of geographers attempt a journey into the interior of the sun. (1904)

The Kid – Free – This was Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length film as a director, and it is still considered one of his best. (1921)

The Lady and the Hooligan – Free – Russian silent film directed by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Yevgeni Slavinsky. (1918)

The Last Laugh – Free – F.W. Murnau’s classic chamber drama about a hotel doorman who falls on hard times. A masterpiece of the silent era, the story is told almost entirely in pictures. (1924)

The Little Match Girl – Free – a 40-minute silent film by Jean Renoir based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. (1928)

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog – Free – One of Hitchcock’s silent classics. A landlady suspects her lodger is a murderer killing women around London. (1927)

The Lost World – Free – The “grandaddy of monster movies,” the film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam. (1925)

The Story of the Kelly Gang – Free – An Australian film that traces the life of the legendary infamous outlaw and bushranger Ned Kelly. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register for being the world’s first full-length narrative feature film. (1906)

The Student of Prague – Free – A classic of German expressionist film. German writer Hanns Heinz Ewers and Danish director Stellan Rye bring to life a 19th-century horror story. Some call it the first indie film. (1913)

The Toll of the Sea – Free – The first general release film in technicolor. 1922.

The Tramp – Free – The film made Chaplin’s great Tramp character famous. (1915)

The Vagabond – Free – A silent film by Charlie Chaplin that co-starred Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Leo White and Lloyd Bacon, with Chaplin appearing as The Tramp. The British Film Institute calls it the “pivotal work” of his Mutual period – “and his most touching.” (1916)

The Wizard of Oz – Free – The earliest surviving film version of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel. (1910)

The Wizard of Oz – Free – The first major film adaptation of the classic novel. Features Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodsmen. (1925)

Three Songs About Lenin – Free – Dziga Vertov’s film is based on three admiring songs sung by anonymous people in Soviet Russia about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. (1934)

Tillie’s Punctured Romance – Free – Among other things, the film is notable for being the last Chaplin film didn’t write or direct by himself. (1914)

Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la lune – Free – French black & white silent sci-fi film loosely based on two novels: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells. (1902)

1959: The Year that Changed Jazz – Free – Documentary looks at the transformative albums released by Miles, Brubeck, Coleman & Mingus in 1959.

A is for Architecture – Free – This short documentary offers a panorama of architecture, moving from one tradition to another, illustrating how each reflects the sentiments and values of its time. (1960)

A To Zeppelin: The Story Of Led Zeppelin – Free (US audiences only) – Chronicles the band’s history, from their 1968 formation to their reign as 1970s hard-rock giants, with rare photographs, archival footage, and interviews. (2004)

A Brief History of Time – Free – Errol Morris’ documentary on Stephen Hawking. He called it “one of the most beautiful films I ever shot.” (1992)

A Communications Primer – Free – An instructional film on the basics of communication, created by Charles and Ray Eames of Eames Office for IBM. (1953)

A Land Without Bread – Free – Ostensibly a documentary about the Las Hurdes region located in a remote corner of Spain, this Luis Buñuel’s film is in fact a lacerating parody of travel documentaries. (1933)

A Look Behind the Future – Free – Intriguing 1966 documentary takes you inside the making of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the thrilling technologies then in real-life development. (1966)

A Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies – Free – A 10-part documentary built around a series of interviews with the filmmaker where he offers thoughts on the mechanics of making beautiful movies. (2000)

A Night with Lou Reed – Free – An intimate visual record of Reed’s sold out performance at The Bottom Line in New York City in 1983. (1991)

A Poet in Cinema: Andrei Tarkovsky – Free – A rare look at Andrei Tarkovsky’s thoughts on life and filmmaking. Directed by Donatella Baglivo. (1983)

A Story of Healing – Free – Won Academy Award for best Documentary Short Subject. Follows a team of volunteers in Vietnam. (1997)

A World of Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Free – Founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is a three dimensional encyclopedia of art history. Filmed in 2004.

Auschwitz – Free – Steven Spielberg creates a short documentary, narrated by Meryl Streep, on the Nazi concentration camp where 1.1 million people, most of them European Jews, were killed during World War II. (2015)

Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man in the World – Free – Takes you into the life of Aleister Crowley, an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, and mountaineer, responsible for founding the religion of Thelema.

Albert Camus: The Madness of Sincerity – Free – About the life and work of writer Albert Camus, including interviews with his former mistresses and Camus’ daughter Catherine and her twin brother Jean. (1997)

Andrei Tarkovsky – Free – A comprehensive analysis of the director’s life outside of the cinema and the struggles he endured to create lasting personal works. An Arena documentary from the British Broadcasting System. (1987)

Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein – Free – Documentary on the two artists from 1966.

Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye – Free – A revealing look at the “Father of American Photography.” Appeared in the PBS American Masters series. (1999)

Ansel Adams: The Incisive Art – Free – Explores the work of one of America’s most famous photographers, Ansel Adams as he goes beneath the surface to record nature and the quality of humanity. (1962)

Arduino: The Documentary – Free – Revisits a project launched in the Italian town of Ivrea back in 2005. The challenge? To develop cheap, easy-to-use electronics components for design students. (2010)

Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief – Free – A mini-series created by Jonathan Miller explores the history of atheism in the world. (2004)

Audio Ammunition – Free – A series of short documentaries on The Clash and five of their classic studio albums. Produced by Google. (2013)

Bed Peace – Free – 70 minute documentary revisits John and Yoko’s famous 1969 Bed-Ins, which amounted to a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War. (2011)

Beat This!: A Hip-Hop History – Free – Originally part of the Arena television series, the TV doc was among the first crop of documentaries about hip-hop and hip-hop culture. (1984)

Beautiful Equations – Free – Artist/writer Matt Collings takes the plunge into an alien world of equations, asking top scientists to help him understand five of the most famous equations in science. (2010)

Billie Holiday: The Life and Artistry of Lady Day – Free – What makes this low-budget documentary worthwhile is the music. The film features some of the best surviving footage of Holiday performing. (2004)

Black Coffee – Free – A three part look at “the world’s most widely taken legal drug,” a beverage whose intellectually intense die-hard enthusiasts give wine’s a run for their money, from historical, political, social, and economic angles. (2007)

Blitzkrieg Bop – Free – Hour-long TV documentary takes an old school look at CBGB during the heyday. Features The Ramones, Blondie and The Dead Boys. Mixes live performance with short interview clips. (1978)

Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud – Free – Documentary on the inventor/visionary/thinker R. Buckminster Fuller, produced and directed by four time Academy Award nominees Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon. (1996)

Brussels Express – Free – Directed by Sander Vandenbroucke, this 20 minute film explores the risks of cycling in modern Brussels, one of the most congested cities in today’s Europe. (2012)

Bullfight at Malaga – Free – Photographed by Richard Leacock, this short film records what happened when the two greatest matadors tried to outdo each other in what became known as “The Bullfight of the Century.” (2010)

Confrontation: Paris, 1968 – Free – A documentary by Seymour Drescher (Professor in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh & former student of George Mosse), looks at the student and worker upheaval in France in May, 1968.

Conversations with Myself – Free – Alan Watts walks in the mountains and talks about the limitations of technology and the problem of trying to keep track of an infinite universe with a single tracked mind. (1971)

Dark Side of the Moon – Free – William Karel satirizes the notion that Stanley Kubrick was behind the great moon landing hoax. (2002)

David Bowie: Sound and Vision – Free – Takes you on a journey throug Bowie’s career. Features interviews with Bowie, Iman his wife, his musical contemporaries including Iggy Pop, Moby and Trent Reznor. (2002)

David Bowie: The Story of Ziggy Stardust – Free – Film tells the story of how Bowie arrived at one of the most iconic creations in the history of pop music. The songs, the hairstyles, the fashion, etc. (2012)

David Lynch on the History of Surrealist Cinema – Free – Pretty much what the title said. (1987)

Day of the Dead – Free – Designers Charles and Ray Eames short portrait of the Mexican festival, Day of the Dead. (1957)

Day of the Fight – Free – The first film shot by Stanley Kubrick, focusing on the middleweight boxer Walter Cartier. (1950)

Days of Our Lives – Free – Documentary explores the life and times of the rock band Queen.

Death Mills – Free – Billy Wilder’s documentary in German showing what Allies found when they liberated Nazi extermination camps. (1945)

Dial H for Hitchcock – Free – Made to celebrate the centenary of Hitchcock’s birth, this documentary concentrates on his major US films. Surviving collaborators, colleagues, and directors are interviewed. (1999)

Diane Arbus: Masters of Photography – Free – The documentary created soon after the photographer’s death is based on interviews with those who knew her best. (1972.)

Down from the Mountain – Free – Documentary/concert film about the making of the Grammy-winning soundtrack recording for the Joel and Ethan Coen film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Man Of Peace In A Time Of War – Free – Documentary examining the life of MLK Jr. includes rarely seen footage.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams – Free – Peabody award-winning film chronicles the life of Fitzgerald, one of America’s greatest novelists, in images and ideas as lyrical and inventive as his prose. (2002)

Fellini, I’m a Born Liar – Free – A look at Fellini’s creative process. In extensive interviews, Fellini talks about his background and then discusses how he works and how he creates. (2002)

Filming ‘The Trial’ – Free – An unfinished making-of film by Orson Welles, made in 1981, which focuses on the production of his 1962 film The Trial. (1981)

First Orbit – Free – A real time recreation of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering first orbit, shot entirely in space from on board the International Space Station. (2011)

Flâneur III – Free – An attempt at capturing the character of Paris by following the development of the city’s different forms throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, in the spirit of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin. (1998)

Flying Padre – Free – The second film shot by Stanley Kubrick focuses on a priest in New Mexico who got around his vast parish in a Piper Cub airplane. (1951)

For Neda – Free – An HBO documentary on the life of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman gunned down during the crushing of Iran’s Green Revolution. (2010)

Fractals: The Colors of Infinity – Free – Arthur C. Clarke brings us inside the world of fractal geometry, David Gilmour provides the soundtrack. (1995)

From One Second to the Next – Free – German director Werner Herzog presents a harrowing 35 minute film on the dangers of texting while driving. (2013)

Future Shock – Free – A short documentary based on a book written by futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. It’s narrated by Orson Welles. (1972)

Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine – Free – About the famous match between chess legend Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer created by IBM. (2003)

Gente del Po – Free – Michaelangelo Antonioni’s documentary short on the people of the Po valley. (1947)

George Eastman House: Picture Perfect – Free – The urban estate of George Eastman, who made photographers of us all, is a treasure trove of photographs and one of the world’s premier film archives. (2003)

Glass – Free – Directed by Bert Haanstra, this short documentary about the glass industry won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. (1958)

Glenn Gould – Off the Record and Glenn Gould – On the Record-Free – Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor made a pair of gorgeously shot documentaries about the Canadian pianist, giving viewers insight into his life and music. (1959)

Haruki Murakami: In Search of this Elusive Writer – Free – Alan Yentob travels through Japan, from the midnight Tokyo of After Hours to the snowed-in Hokkaido of A Wild Sheep Chase, in a quest to find artifacts of the novelist’s imaginary world.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment – Free – 18-minute film features a selection of Cartier-Bresson’s iconic photographs, along with rare commentary by the photographer himself. (1973)

In Search of Moebius – Free – Documentary about Frenchman Jean Giraud, one of the most influential comic strip illustrators and authors of all time.

Inside: Dr. Strangelove – Free – Interviews with cast members, critics, editors, producers and others associated with the picture reveal how this Cold War worst-case-scenario developed into something so very… Kubrickian.

Jacques Lacan Speaks – Free – The psychoanalyst gives a packed lecture at the Catholic University of Louvain in 1972, followed by a probing interview. One of only 2 known appearances by Lacan on film. Shot by Belgian documentarian Francoise Wolff. (1972)

Jammin’ the Blues – Free – Directed by Life magazine photographer Gjon Mili, the film features Lester Young and other jazz/blues legends. (1944)

Jazz Hot – Free – Django Reinhardt, violinist Stéphane Grappelli and their band the Quintette du Hot Club de France perform together in a short film designed to promote a UK tour. (1938)

Jeff Buckley – Everybody Here Wants You – Free – Documentary about the life of Jeff Buckley. Featuring contributions from his family, friends, band members and admirers including Brad Pitt, Elizabeth Fraser, Jimmy Page.

Johnny Cash: The Last Great American – Free – Documentary profiling the life of legendary country music star, who died in 2003. (2004)

Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind – Free – Detailed documentary on Joni Mitchell’s life and her music, written and directed by Susan Lacy and produced for broadcast as a TV special. (2003)

Lenny Bruce in “Lenny Bruce” – Free – In a “performance film,” Lenny Bruce appears at San Francisco’s Basin Street West in what was his next-to-last live appearance. (1967)

Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man – Free (Limited to US audience) – A retrospective of Cohen’s life and work. Features tribute performances of his songs by Beth Orton, Nick Cave, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, and U2. (2005)

Life in a Day – Video – Film captures for future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010. Executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.

Live in Rome – Free – Documentary captures the Talking Heads playing live in Rome. Features the group’s full “Afro-Funk Orchestra” lineup, plus Adrian Belew on guitar. (1980)

Living for 32 – Free – An inspirational documentary of Colin Goddard, a survivor of the tragic gun shooting massacre on the Virginia Tech campus, April 16th, 2007. (2010)

Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick – Free -Narrated by Malcolm McDowell, this short documentary examines the films Stanley Kubrick developed but didn’t live long enough to make. Features interviews given by Kubrick’s longtime producer Jan Harlan, Jack Nicholson, Sydney Pollack etc. (2007)

Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary – Free – When actor/director Kevin Smith attended Vancouver Film School, he and producer Scott Mosier attempted to create a documentary project on a transsexual entertainer. However, in the middle of production the documentary fell apart. The two director/producers had to come up with another documentary. The Crumbling of a Documentary. (1992)

Making the Shining – Free – Stanley Kubrick’s daughter Vivian shot a film that looks behind the scenes at the great horror film based on Stephen King’s novel. (1980)

Man Among Men: Alberto Giacometti – Free – Film features the sculptor shedding light on his own work. (1963)

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media – Free – Explores the political and intellectual life of Noam Chomsky and expands on ideas in Chomsky’s earlier book, Manufacturing Consent. (1992)

Michel Foucault: Beyond Good and Evil – Free – Documentary explores the controversial life and work of Michel Foucault. (1993)

Mingus – Free – A close-up of bass player and composer Charlie Mingus as he and his five-year-old daughter await eviction by the City of New York. (1968)

My Dinner with Abbie – Free – An ex flower child sits down for dinner with a revolutionary icon of the 60s and 70s, Abbie Hoffman. (1990)

N is a Number – Free – Documentary directed by George Paul Csicsery about the life of mathematician Paul Erdős.

Nanook of the North – Free – The first feature length documentary. Directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the film, focusing on an Inuit family living in the Arctic Circle, was one of the first films to be selected for historical preservation by the Library of Congress. (1922)

Nico-Icon – Free – Focuses on Nico, renowned for her associations with artist Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground. (1995)

Pen, Brush and Camera – Free – 50-minute documentary about the life and work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the photographer considered to be the father of photojournalism. (1998)

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness – Free – With Alain de Botton. A self-help guide which applies the teachings of philosophers to dealing with life’s everyday problems. (2000)

Philosophy and the Matrix: Return to the Source – Free – Documentary looks at how The Matrix dealt with questions about religious revelation and authority, parapsychology, free will and determinism, and the nature of personal identity. (2004)

Report from the Aleutians – Free – John Huston, while a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1943, creates an Academy Award winning documentary about the Armed Forces’ effort to prevent the fall of the Aleutian Islands to Japanese troops. (1943)

Road to the Stars – Free – Directed by Pavel Klushantsev, this Soviet documentary combines elements of science education films and speculative science fiction. It was groundbreaking for its use of special effects to depict life in space. (1957)

Room to Dream: David Lynch and the Independent Filmmaker – Free – David Lynch explains how he brings his unique vision to the screen with technologies that are now within reach for independent filmmakers. (2005)

Russia’s Open Book: Writing in the Age of Putin – Free – Stephen Fry hosts a documentary exploring the vital literary scene in contemporary Russia. (2014)

Sea of Faith – Free – In this six-part series, Don Cupitt explores the history of Christianity in the modern world, exploring the works of philosophers like Blaise Pascal, René Descartes, Kierkegaard, Jung, Freud, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and more. (1984)

Scenes from Allen’s Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit – Free – A kind of video diary of poet Allen Ginsberg’s last days. (1997)

Staircases to Nowhere: Making Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining – Free – An in-depth oral history of the production of Stanley Kubrick’s film, The Shining.

Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes – Free – Several years after his death, the widow of Stanley Kubrick asked Jon Ronson to look through the contents of about 1,000 boxes of meticulously sorted materials Kubrick left in house. (2008)

Stress, Portrait of a Killer – Free – Scientific discoveries in the field and in the lab prove that stress is not just a state of mind, but something measurable and dangerous. Features Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky. (2008)

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story – Free – Controversial film tells the life story of Karen Carpenter with Barbie dolls. (1987)

Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life – Free – A musical short that features Duke Ellington’s early extended piece, “A Rhapsody of Negro Life.” Stars 19-year-old Billie Holiday. (1935)

Ten Days That Shook the World – Free – Originally called Oktyabr, Sergei Eisenstein’s film documents the Russian Revolution of 1917. A masterpiece by a pioneering filmmaker. (1928)

The American West of John Ford – Free– A documentary encapsulating the career and Western films of director John Ford, featuring interviews with John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. (1971)

The Battle of Midway – Free – Directed by John Ford. Narrated by Henry Fonda. On June 4-6, 1942, Japanese forces attempted to capture Midway Island in the North Pacific, but were defeated by U.S. forces. On hand was a crew of naval photographers directed by John Ford. (1942)

The Battle of San Pietro – Free – John Huston’s war time documentary. (1945)

The Charles Bukowski Tapes – Free – A collection of 52 short interviews conducted by French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder, who directed the Bukowski-penned Barfly. (1987)

The Confessions of Robert Crumb – Free – A portrait of the artist scripted by the underground comics legend himself (1987)

The Cry of Jazz – Free – Controversial film by Ed Bland explores issues around African-Americans and jazz in the United States. Includes interviews with artists and intellectuals and performances by Sun Ra and John Gilmore. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. (1958)

The Distortion of Sound – Free – A documentary about the decline of sound quality and how technology has changed the way we listen to music. Features numerous musicians. (2014)

The Fighting Lady – Free – Directed by William Wyler, this film provides a portrait of life on a World War II aircraft carrier (1944)

The Genius of Charles Darwin – Free – A three part series presented by Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins. (2008)

The God Delusion – Free – Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins argues that the world would be better off without religion. The film accompanied a book by the same title. (2006)

The Henry Miller Odyssey – Free – Robert Snyder’s documentary, almost entirely narrated by Miller, follows the author through his early years, from his childhood in Brooklyn to his blissful exile in Paris. See more in the original review by The Harvard Crimson. (1969)

The History of the Typewriter Recited by Michael Winslow – Free – Sound effects genius Michael Winslow performs the sounds of 32 typewriters made between 1898-1983. (2010)

The Hitch – Free – Kristoffer Seland Hellesmark created an 80-minute documentary about the iconoclastic journalist Christopher Hitchens, lovingly entitled The Hitch, which features clips from his speeches and interviews. (2014)

The House I Live In – Free – A ten-minute short film starring Frank Sinatra made to oppose anti-Semitism and racial prejudice at the end of World War II. (1945)

The Land Where the Blues Began – Free – Alan Lomax takes you into the Mississippi Delta, into to the heart of the Blues. (1978)

The Last 48 Hours of Kurt Cobain – Free – British documentary takes a look the final days of Kurt Cobain, the Nirvana frontman who committed suicide in 1994. (2007)

The James Dean Story – Free – Documentary on the life and times of James Dean made by the great filmmaker Robert Altman — MASH, The Player, Gosford Park, etc. (1957)

The Love for Wood – Free – A documentary about well known Dutch chess players, featuring Jan Timman, Hans Ree, Piet Hein Donner, Max Euwe and others. It’s a beautiful document of the period and the state of chess at that time. English subtitles. (1979)

The Magic Sun – Free – Artist Phil Niblock captures a brief moment of an interstellar communication by Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra in their prime. (1968)

The Making of Almost Blue – Free – South Bank Show follows Elvis Costello to Nashville for the making of his album “Almost Blue.” (1981)

The Making of Dark Side of the Moon – Free – A look inside the creation of a famous Pink Floyd album. (2003)

The Making of Koyaanisqatsi – Free – Director Godfrey Reggio gives you the backstory behind his 1982 film, Koyaanisqatsi.

The March – Free – James Blues’s “visually stunning, moving, and arresting documentary of the hope, determination, and camaraderie” embodied by The Great March on Washington. (1964)

The Men Who Made the Movies: Hitchcock – Free – A look at Alfred Hitchcock’s films. The Master of Suspense himself, who is interviewed extensively here, shares stories about filmmaking. (1973)

The Miles Davis Story – Free – The definitive biography of a jazz legend. (2001)

The Mystery of Picasso – Free – Pablo Picasso’s art emerges in front of our eyes in this remarkable film by the French master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot. (1956)

The Nomi Song – Free – Andrew Horn’s doc about the life of singer Klaus Nomi. Debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival and won a Teddy Award for “Best Documentary Film. (2004)

The Owl’s Legacy (L’Héritage de la chouette) – Free – Created by French director Chris Marker, this 13 episode program examines the roots of western culture in Ancient Greece. It was never broadcast. (1989)

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – Free – Features Richard Feynman, the charismatic, Nobel prize-winning physicist, talking in a very personal way about the joys of scientific discovery. (1981)

The Power of Nightmares – Free – A three-part history of how radical Islamism in many ways paralleled the rise of Neo-Conservatism. Though critically acclaimed, it never aired in America. (2004)

The Responsive Eye – Free – Brian DePalma’s short film documenting the opening night of an OP ART exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966.

The Seafarers – Free – It was Stanley Kubrick’s third film, and his first in color. Otherwise, not of great note. (1953)

The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler – Free – 1950’s television documentary that includes interviews with Hitler’s sister Paula Wolf and footage from Eva Braun’s rare home movies.

The Space Shuttle – Free – History of the US Space Shuttle program narrated by William Shatner. (2011)

The Spanish Earth – Free – A Spanish Civil War propaganda film written and narrated by Ernest Hemingway. (1937)

The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays – Free – Puppets of Dostoevsky, Dickens and Poe star in an educational science film created by Frank Capra. (1957)

The Story of the Guitar – Free – A three part documentaryreveals how the guitar came to “dominate the soundtrack of our lives.” (2008)

The Story of Wish You Were Here – Free – Takes you inside the making of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album. (2012)

The Tibetan Book of the Dead – Free – Narrated by Leonard Cohen and featuring the Dalai Lama, the film explores an essential teaching in the Buddhist cultures of the Himalayas. (1994)

The Unchained Goddess – Free – After winning three Oscars for best director, Frank Capra produced a science education film on the weather that made one of the first arguments for taking action against climate change. (1958)

Triumph of the Will – Free – (1935) The major Nazi propaganda work by Leni Riefenstahl. With subtitles.

The Ten-Year Lunch – Free – Oscar-winning film about the writers who sat at the Algonquin Round Table in New York during the 1920s. (1986)

The True Glory – Free – War time propaganda documentary directed by Carol Reed, with General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General George S. Patton. (1945)

The Velvet Underground: A Symphony of Sound – Free –Produced by Andy Warhol, the film shows VU performing a 67-minute instrumental improvisation. (1966)

The Way of the Flesh – Free – Directed by Adam Curtis this documentary on Henrietta Lacks won the Best Science and Nature Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Find an alternate version on Archive.org. (1998)

They Were There – Free – 30-minute film by Errol Morris, commissioned by IBM to celebrate the company’s centennial. Music by Philip Glass.

The World According to John Coltrane – Free – Produced with his widow Alice Coltrane, the documentary focuses on the later period of Coltrane’s work where he explored themes of Eastern spirituality. (1990)

The World At War – Free – Acclaimed 26-episode WWII documentary “The World at War” was produced by Thames Television and aired in 1973-1974.

There is No Authority But Yourself – Free – Feature documentary about seminal anarcho-punk band Crass, directed by Dutch filmmaker Alexander Oey. (2006)

Thomas Pynchon: A Journey Into the Mind of P. – Free – A documentary, written & directed by Donatello Dubini & Fosco Dubini, on the reclusive novelist. (2008)

Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna – Free – Tom Waits sings and tells stories in film that originally aired on Austrian TV. (1979)

Toute la mémoire du monde (All the World’s Memories) – Free – Alain Resnais’s short documentary looks at the inner workings of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. It’s “a meditative piece about the fragility of human memory and the ways in which we try to shore it up.” (1956)

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard – Free – Documentary based around the interpersonal triumphs and defeats of the three main figures running the file sharing web site, Pirate Bay. (2013)

Trapped: Andy Warhol’s Amiga Experiments – Free – Short film documents how Carnegie Mellon experts recovered lost paintings that Andy Warhol made on the Commodore Amiga computer during the 1980s.

Vietnam! Vietnam! – Free – The last film produced by the legendary John Ford was a work of propaganda commissioned by the United States government in support of the Vietnam War. (1971)

Virginia Woolf: A Novelist – Free – Draws on old maps, contemporary drawings and paintings, portraits and other archive material to present an outline of Virginia Woolf’s life and to convey a picture of the social and historical background to her writing.

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe – Free – Herzog loses a bet to Errol Morris and eats a shoe with the help of chef Alice Waters. (1980)

What is Reality – Free – From the popular Horizon series by the British Broadcasting series comes a documentary that looks at the nature of reality. (2011)

Who’s Afraid Of Machiavelli – Free – This documentary asks how relevant Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, is 500 years after its publication. (2013)

Why We Fight – Free – A seven part series of WWII propaganda films directed by Frank Capra. (1943)

What is Reality? – Free – Physicists give us a taste of reality in a world where nothing is as it appears. (2011)

William S. Burroughs & Lawrence – Free – William S. Burroughs and his years in Lawrence, Kansas. He lived in Lawrence longer than in any other place and chose to spend the last several years of his life here. (2014)

William S. Burroughs: Commissioner of Sewers – Free – Klaus Maeck’s in-depth interview with Burroughs. Includes a series of his readings, a collection of his appearances in other movies, and even images of his paintings. (1991)

WikiRebels – Free – Documentary by Swedish public television chronicles history of Wikileaks. (2010)

13 Experimental Short Films by Tezuka Osamu – Free – Early animations by Tezuka Osamau, often called the Walt Disney of Japan.

A Country Doctor – Free – A Franz Kaka story retold in an award-winning animation by Japanese animator Koji Yamamura. (2007)

A Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Double Feature – Free – A precursor to modern music videos, this Oscar-winning animated film by John & Faith Hubley is set to the music of two popular songs recorded by Herb Alpert. (1966)

Ah Pook is Here – Free – A stop motion animation based on audio recordings by William S. Burroughs, with music by John Cale. (1994)

Gumbasia – Free – First clay animation produced by Art Clokey, who went on to create the classic series, Gumby. (1955)

Here There be Tygers – Free – A Soviet animation of a short story by Ray Bradbury. Directed by Vladimir Samsonov (1989).

How a Mosquito Operates – Free – One of the surviving works by famed animator Winsor McCay. (1912)

How Animated Cartoons Are Made – Free – One of the earliest, truest looks at how cartoons were made in the earliest 20th century. Features animation pioneer Wallace Carlson. (1919)

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces –Free – Made by James Stuart Blackton, this short film is considered the first animation ever made.(1906)

Hunger – Free – Directed by Peter Foldes, Hunger is one of the first computer animation films. It won a Special Jury Prize at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. (1974)

I Touch a Red Button Man – Free – A short film by David Lynch and Interpol. Originally shown at the Coachella 2011 Festival.

Is It Right to Be Always Right? – Free – Narrated by Orson Welles, this Oscar-winning film directed by Lee Mishkin is a parable that comments on divisions in the United States. (1970)

Jazzmosphere – Free – An animated film on the relationship between images and sound, created by Michel Gondry and Jean-Louis Bompoint. (1988)

King and Octopus – Free – Tim Burton’s short animation made during film school at CalArts. (1978)

Logorama – Free – François Alaux and Herve de Crecy’s 17 minute film, Logorama, won the Oscar for Short Film (Animated) in 2009.

Superman – Free – Max Fleischer’s short animated movie. Nominated for the 1942 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. Other shorts that followed can be viewed here. (1941)

Superman: The Mechanical Monsters – Free – Film captures the era’s characteristic ambivalence in reconciling the need for progress with the fear of technology. Find more episodes in this series at Toonami Digital Arsenal. (1941)

The Ant and the Grasshopper – Free – Early stop animation film by the great Russian animator Ladislas Starevich. (1911)

The Cameraman’s Revenge – Free – This very early silent era stop-motion film was made by Ladislas Starevich in imperial Russia in 1912. He used real insects to create the story. (1912)

The Cathedral – Free – “The Cathedral” is the title of a sci fi short story by Jacek Dukaj. It was turned into a short animated movie by Tomasz Bagiński and nominated in 2002 for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. (2002)

The Cave – Free – A short claymation film animating the famous cave allegory in Plato’s Republic. (2008)

The Happy Prince – Free – A faithful rendering of an Oscar Wilde children’s story. Features the voices of Christopher Plummer and Glynis Johns. (1974)

The Hobbit – Free – This short animation by Prague-based animator Gene Deitch was the first film adaptation of Tolkien’s classic. (1966)

The Hole – Free – A 15-minute animated film by John Hubley and Faith Hubley that won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1962. Features the voice of Dizzy Gillespie. (1962)

The Idea – Free – Created by Czech filmmaker Berthold Bartosch, The Idea has been called “the first animated film created as an artwork with serious, even tragic, social and philosophical themes.” (1932)

The John Lennon Sketchbook – Free – Oscar-winning animator John Canemaker brings to life the drawings and doodles of John Lennon. (1986)

The Junky’s Christmas – Free – Short claymation film starring (and written by) William S. Burroughs. Danny the Carwiper spends Christmas Day trying to score a fix, but finds the Christmas spirit instead. Produced by Coppola. (1993)

The Legend of Robert Johnson – Free – Animation of the famous bluesman’s fabled deal with the devil. (2011)

The Mascot – Free – This 1934 film by the Russian animator Wladyslaw Starewicz pioneered a number of stop animation techniques, making it a seminal film in the history of animation. (1934)

The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa – Free – A wonderful sand animation of the classic Kafka story, The Metamorphosis. Made by Caroline Leaf.(1977)

The Miracle of Flight – Free – A cutout animation by Terry Gilliam. Made in the style of (but separately from) Monty Python. (1974)

The Old Man and the Sea – Free – Aleksandr Petrov won the Academy Award for Short Film for this film that follows the plot of Ernest Hemingway’s classic 1952 novella. Made of 29,000 images painted on glass. (1999)

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Free – Experimental film created by Larry Jordan, an independent filmmaker who tried to marry “the classic engravings of Gustave Doré to the classic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge through a classic narrator: Orson Welles. (1977)

The Sand Castle – Free – Short animated film about the sandman and the creatures he sculpts out of sand. 1977 Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short Film.

The Selfish Giant – Free – An Oscar-nominated animated version of Oscar Wilde’s children’s story by the same title. (1971)

The Sinking of the Lusitania – Free – Early animator Winsor McCay documents in 12 minutes the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. (1918)

The Spirit of ’43 – Free – Disney propaganda film made for the American government. Features Donald Duck. (1943)

The Story Of Menstruation – Free – Walt Disney’s sex ed film was shown to millions of American students from the 1940s to the 1960s. (1946)

The Story of Stuff – Free – Animated fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. (2007)

The Tale and the Fox – Free – Ladislas Starevich’s classic animation of a German folktale adapted by Goethe. (1937)

The Tell-Tale Heart – Free – Animated version of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic from 1953. Narrated by James Mason.

Voyage to Next – Free – Directed by John Hubley and Faith Hubley, this short animated film features the voices of Dizzy Gillespie and Maureen Stapleton, and the characters wonder whether the world can avoid annihilation.(1974)

Australian Screen Archive: The Australian National Film and Sound Archive provides free and worldwide access to over 1,000 film and television titles – a treasure chest of down-under video 100 years in the making.

B Minus Movies: AMC is your new go-to site for B-movies by the likes of John Carpenter (Dark Star) and Roger Corman (Saga of the Viking Women). Want to see international icons before they made it big? Check out Raquel Welch in A Swingin’ Summer or kung-fu king Sonny Chiba in Terror Beneath the Sea. Looking for the unexpected? How about The Ruthless Four, a spaghetti Western starring Klaus Kinski.

BestOnlineDocumentaries: As one reader previously told us, “This site is a bit out of date and some of the links are broken, but it’s still a great compilation of online documentaries.” For more documentaries, you should also see Snagfilms mentioned below.

Big Five Glories: Presents classic films in the public domain within an attractive user interface. Makes the films a pleasure to watch.

Classic Cinema Online: This site nicely pulls together hundreds of classic films, ranging from Action to Westerns and even old cinema shorts and news reels.

Crackle.com: If you’re looking for more mainstream movies, here you go. This is Sony’s online movie play. Note: there’s probably some geo-blocking that comes with this. Also, one of our readers has also suggested the UK-based Blinkbox, which seems to offer another platform for more mainstream films.

Creative Commons: The folks who gave us the Creative Commons license host a wiki where you can find a good number of freely available films. Handy and worth keeping an eye on. I’d also suggest keeping tabs on CC’s Video blog.

Film Annex: This site has one of the largest selections of online films for you to watch or download. You can find free classic movies and television shows right here. And you’ll also find at the Film Annex many films from independent filmmakers and directors. The site gives you the ability to download or stream films to your PC, laptop or iPhone. The films are ad-supported.

FMO: FreeMoviesOnline features a large selection of public domain films.

Hulu: Unfortunately Hulu limits its programming to a US audience (a policy that really needs to change), but it’s the 800 pound gorilla in the US, and there are some decent films here. You will find some Hulu titles sprinkled in above.

IMDB: This is perhaps a little redundant, but the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) also hosts some free online films (as well as TV shows) on its site. From what I can tell, it’s done in partnership with Hulu. But this collection has the advantage of pointing you to some decent films. Click here and scroll down. You can also find another re-packager of Hulu flix over at Veoh.com.

NFB.ca: NFB.ca is a web site where you can watch films produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It offers access to 100s of documentaries, animated films and trailers. You can also access this collection via a free iPhone app. (p.s. You should also check out our own free iPhone app, which will let you download free audio books, free courses, free language lessons, and other types of intelligent media.)

OVGuide: If you’re looking for more free films, you should pay this site a visit. OVGuide is an up-to-date guide to online video, including TV shows, movies, and video games. It offers another way to find free movies online.

QuickSilverScreen: This site essentially puts torrents online and lets you watch films posted by other users, including many new films. It’s hard to believe that this site is entirely kosher, but it’s very popular (one of the top 3,000 sites on the web) and hardly a closely held secret.

SnagFilms: SnagFilms offers viewers high-quality video content from an extensive online library that now includes more than 4,000 titles. You can view films at snagfilms.com, as well on SnagFilms’ apps on all mobile and connected TV platforms, and Xbox.

Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive: This online catalog “provides access to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive. The Archive serves as a comprehensive informational and archival resource worldwide for moving image materials pertaining to the Holocaust and related aspects of World War II.”

The Auteurs.com: Though this site typically offers arts films on a pay-per-view basis, it does feature a series of free films. Each month, a free film is featured (see example here). The site also hosts free international films restored by Martin Scorsese’s Word Cinema Foundation, mentioned below.

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About Us

Open Culture editor Dan Colman scours the web for the best educational media. He finds the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & movies you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.